Becoming A Learner

Introduction: Clear, concise, and cohesive: all necessities of an argument. Matthew Sanders, a college professor at the University of Utah, writes in his online bio that he enjoys analyzing the ways of teaching and learning, which is exactly what Sanders does in his book. In Matthew L, Sanders’ book Becoming a Learner: Realizing the Opportunity of Education he argues that college is meant to develop a person into a greater being not to teach them job skills. To develop Sanders’ claim, learning is more than just retaining facts, he correctly aligns his rhetorical situation and uses elements of generative and persuasive arguments. These techniques can include new angles, appeals, storytelling, and many other strategies to influence its readers

Sanders offers a new perspective of angle on the concept of learning. When thinking of learning, most jump to memorization or intelligence, but Sanders argues that is not actually learning. He views learning as improving one’s self-image and comprehension so that they can use those skills in the future. He also offers a new perspective on the questions to ask about a college education. One shouldn’t ask how can I get my degree, but rather how they can get the most out of their degree. The audience of Becoming a Learner is future or current college students. This is a wide range of people, but this story can be beneficial to all who will be in search of a job after college. By telling his audience how to become a learner before they graduate with a degree they will be able to apply his ideas and get the most out of their education. This medium is very important because it gives the audience purpose for reading the piece. If the audience was not college students or another type of learner, it would be too late for them to change the way they strive for their degree. They already obtained their degree and may have missed out on the opportunity to learn more than facts. If Sanders targeted a different argument, his would not be near as effective and even possibly not taken

Logos, the appeal to logic and knowledge, is most commonly used with facts, statistics, or just logical reasoning. On example of Sanders supporting his argument with this appeal is when he cites statistics. In chapter 4, Sanders notes after asking his students how many of their peers cheated it was between 70-90 percent. These numbers create a concrete image in the reader's mind appealing to their logical side that this is the vast majority of his students. Next, the appeal of ethos is the appeal to credibility and authority. Sanders supports his argument with the appeal of ethos by validating the fact that he is a college professor and sees students versus learners all the time. For instance, Sanders says “I see this [students being afraid of being wrong] most often when students turn in written papers (Sanders 4). By mentioning his first-hand account he is building is authority and trustworthiness on the subject at hand. Finally, Sanders appeals to pathos when he involves emotions and presents his invitation to students to become a learner. He addresses the reader as “you” to form the basic relationship. He then notes “I am confident that you…” Implying he has faith in his reader and instills confidence in them (Sanders 5). By using emotions the author makes the reader attached and interested even more in the specific